The Cat and the Mice

There were mice all over. Inside buckets, under beds, in the kitchen and on the roof. They played and danced freely about the house. Till the day a cat, prowling around, found them out!

The lucky cat couldnít believe the feast that lay before her! She lost no time and started to pounce on the mice, one by one. The big and the little, rats with pink ears and stringy tails, all becoming her prey.

Surprised and frightened, the mice scurried to get out of the catís way. They rushed about, hurrying to hide themselves in a hole at the dark end of the kitchen.

The cat was sad, but didnít give up on them and lay in wait outside the hideout.

Several hours passed when the cat realized that the mice were not going to emerge. So pulling up an old trick, she decided to lure them out by pretending to be dead meat.

Hoisting herself onto a peg, the cat hung down limp from it, hoping that the rats would now come to feed on her!

But the mice couldnít be out smarted so easily! One of the mice, peeping cautiously out of the hole, smelt her alive and said, ďEven though you should be well and truly dead, dear cat, we would not come near you!